Creepypasta Wiki:Writing Advice/So You Want to Write an NSFW Pasta
Welcome to CPW… after dark. This unusually sexy “so you want to” guide will focus on NSFW stories. So let’s get the basics out of the way with defining what NSFW is for those who may not be in the know. According to the genre listing, a NSFW pasta is described as being: “suitable for a more mature audience and you should reconsider reading them while at work or school. … Please read responsibly and remember to keep both hands on the keyboard.” An NSFW pasta is a story that typically has sexual content or deals with extremely mature themes/graphic depictions of violence that might be unsettling to the audience. To start off this guide right, I’m just going to dive face-first into the NSFW content and post some risqué pictures to rile up everyone. This image should show you guys that I am going to be handling some pretty adult themes in the only manner I know how to; brash, frank, and with a childish approach. If you are not interested in reading candid comments, feel free to step away now. I am going to be a little more brusque with this subject manner as I hope those who are reading this guide are mature. Now that that’s out of the way, we can get to a few distinctions that are important for those considering writing a NSFW story. These two are important, as they will be the difference between your story staying on the site or being deleted. The difference between a pasta and a porn. Take a look at the Terms of Use for the Creepypasta Wiki. The wiki does not allow obscenely pornographic material. This is a very thin line that the author needs to take into consideration when addressing adult themes. Much like art, there is a grey area between tasteful and pornographic. * Pasta We have the NSFW category for a reason: to feature stories that are well told, but aren’t suitable for younger readers. A majority of the stories there utilize their content effectively to unnerve the audience or to build up the story. They address adult themes effectively and it doesn’t feel like they are being shoehorned into the story. * Porn Here is a question for authors hoping to include a sex scene in their story. Is it relevant to the story? Does it advance the plot in any way? Is the reader going to have a better understanding of the characters or the story after? Kudos to you if you can sit down and write a six page erotic story based on nothing but people bumping uglies, take it somewhere else. Make it a watered-down bondage-themed best seller. As a side note: pictures depicting sexual content are not allowed on the website as they are in direct violation of our ToU policy. The difference between being effective or edgy. Of course, a not-safe-for-work story doesn’t always earn this classification by dealing with detailed descriptions of sex; it can sometimes be put into the NSFW category for featuring content that is meant for mature audiences even if it is not referenced explicitly. (Pedophilia, necrophilia, extremely descriptive torture/violence, etc. to name a few.) This section will discuss how to handle mature themes effectively. * Effective Let me get this out of the way first, using mature themes successfully doesn’t mean that you have to walk on eggshells around the topic; you can address it in a frank and honest manner without sacrificing the emotional impact. There is nothing quite as unsettling as reading something horrible in a method that doesn’t shy away from it or overload it with such melodrama that it becomes almost operatic in its execution. * Edgy “Hey, go fuck yourself with a severed rhino’s dick! I want to write about the sickest shit I can imagine in graphic detail so the audience dry heaves for an hour into a garbage can afterwards. Don’t try and stop me! That's like some sort of violation of my first ammendment!” ~ Edgar the Edgemaster Here’s my biggest gripe with a lot of stories that are written to be NSFW; the actions tend to overshadow the plot and the writer is under the belief that making it edgy equates to it being a good story. That is not the case. A reader can dig around on the deep net and turn up some horrific things but without a well-written plot, it just comes off as torture porn. (Gornography, if you will.) I deleted a story a year back that best exemplifies this. It featured a dad taking his son to a candy factory where he was brutalized by a pedophile. While it could have been an effectively unnerving story if written correctly, the author spent little to no time with building characters or a sense of atmosphere. The first paragraph was basically the protagonist going to the factory, while the second, third, and fourth were descriptions of the boy being tortured and raped and then the story ended. There was no resolution or sense that the author was trying to make a point. It was just shock content for the sake of edginess. Wrapping everything up. I know this guide is a bit shorter than the other guides, but it’s a pretty large topic that can address multiple themes so I really wanted to give readers the basics of writing an NSFW story and what to avoid with them. To recap: a NSFW creepypasta is a story that features adult content (usually of a sexual manner, but it can also be labeled NSFW for being extremely graphic). To effectively tell an NSFW story, authors should ask if the action/content is pertinent to the story and furthers the plot. The author should also debate whether the content is being told in an effective style or if it comes off like you are trying to pointlessly shock the audience. If it's the latter, then it may be necessary to revise the story. Unfortunately we get a lot of users trolling the deep web for inspiration, but one of the larger issues with this is that without a story to build around the content; the story just comes off as a half-hearted attempt to shock the audience rather than unnerve them. Take your time with the story and try to think of the most effective method of addressing the topic without writing a pointless sex scene or an effortlessly edgy story.